Genealogy Chat

Unable to find a burial for a Richard Massey , born Rostherne in 1736.
Married in Sandbach 1759. Children baptised at St John - Knutsford,--
Last child baptised at St Johns in 1768
Wife Sarah buried at St Johns in 1775 as wife of Richard Massey.

Appears to have been a Farmer at Ollerton , nr Knutsford for 15 years.
Next generation all at Knutsford. Have searched paper copies of PR for Rostherne and Knutsford. No trace
Any suggestions as to place of burial?

You need firstly to determine where he died..............and when

In this period. how does one determine when a person died and where - apart from the burial record in a church register?

The two parish registers searched are in a within several miles of Ollerton . No suitable burials shown on Family Search/Ancestry/FMP.

He appears to have been farming in the same area for some years - from the baptisms records of his children. The land tax record for Ollerton starts at 1780 , and he is not shown.
He was only 40 at his wife's death, but not found a possible re-marriage either.

Did any of his children move away? If so, check the burial registers in their area.

When you checked the paper copies of the burial register, were any of the pages indecipherable? Were they the originals or the Bishops Transcript where they might have missed it off? There is also the possibility that the Priest forgot to record it.

How about non-conformist places of worship in the area? Their burials won't be included on an CoE register.

If you were to look at any parish register, you'll find 'man unknown' for an unidentified body. If for some reason he'd travelled away from his area, he might be one of those unfortunates.

Thank you, I had thought that he may be a visitor somewhere, but even a very general search on web sites doesn't bring up many Richard Massey's who died in the period.
His children and grandchildren are all married and buried within these two church areas. The records for many - but not-- all Cheshire Churches being on the web.
The area was a strong non conformist area, so that's a possibility.

I started by just looking for grave yards in existence between1768 and 1836 (when he would be 100).
But as you suggested some entries were not made at all. I shall just have to keep looking.
This week I have had a reply from the CRO- who checked out these two registers, and they didn't find him either. Sometimes the writing is a bit difficult at this period. so I wanted to be sure that I hadn't missed it.

Thanks again

Another source of online parish records for Rostherne and Knutsford can be found on the Cheshire Parish Register Database. My apologies if you already know of the website.

http://cgi.csc.liv.ac.uk/~cprdb/

Linda

Hi Linda

Thank you yes I did know. I wish they had completed all the parishes! That however make take several years, their information is slightly more detailed than the Family Search Org, site. And is thoroughly checked.

I discovered that on the Mormon site several doz entries for Massey have been transcribed as Mafsey---misinterpreting the tradition of the long 's' as shown on the document. So I have to remember to search twice on their site.

I suppose there is always that possibility too - that the entry has been mis- transcribed.
I had several people look at the films for Rostherne and Knutsford, so I guess I shall have to do the same with other parishes. I am sure he is out there somewhere...

If he was a farmer, did he leave a Will?
That would at least give a time frame to search.

When was he last known to be alive?
Did he sign as a witness at the marriage of any of his children ?

Gwyn

There is no record of a will for this man. He seems to have been quite literate, signing and writing notes on the marriage licence in 1759. It looks as though his son William appears on the land tax records for Knutsford for 1780,
The marriage record for his two sons c 1795 - is just the four names of bride ,groom, and two witnesses - all signing their names.

I have had an email back from the Family Search team to acknowledge that the name Massey has 239 errors on the Land Tax Collection, and the Parish register search facility has 237 errors , I suppose I should go back to parish records, and look for other anomalies on transcription/indexing.

I suppose in theory he was last alive at the birth of his youngest child Thomas - in 1768, Knutsford PR. Nine years before the death of his wife.-1775

. :-(